Oddbean

I don’t understand how the crypto community trusts Telegram which is closed source, has substandard encryption, and actively cooperates with police. Signal isn’t perfect but it’s a hell of a lot better than Telegram. Transparent open funding from the US government and California tech money donations is a hell of a lot better than sketchy Russian and Middle Eastern funders. nostr:note1ennu6anqz8ah20lmkfdj66dfhalxutpz4f5qalyjdre6arhc4edsdcl0uy

https://simplex.chat > Signal > Telegram > WhatsApp nostr:nevent1qqsxwkevny5fc2z49ky3tvmftfwvyp9623mhc2h9qvaxpsthve7pmnqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvupzqak8r2hr5jglrk0wc37t59lz98x6gyf6pwaku6hpwakhvslznjh6qvzqqqqqqy8rdp7g nostr:naddr1qqyxxdecvdsn2ctrqgswekjr9rqthy5u52z6gfmz7nll6cedxk82fpqled6zfdcszfu0qusrqsqqqa28wnm9kw

I don't think either should be trusted. The initial funding for signal was from the US intelligence agencies, not just "the US government". I don't trust the FBI/CIA to fund a messaging app that doesn't allow them some backdoor to spy on messages. Tucker Carlson also claimed the government found out about his plans to interview Putin because they could read his signal messages (I have no idea if these claims have merit, but it's concerning).

If they had some other way into his phone they wouldn't need to break signal at all (not that it rules it out either ofc). 0-days for the latest android/ios devices are well within the reach of three letter agencies

"Transparent open funding from the US government and California tech money donations is a hell of a lot better than sketchy Russian and Middle Eastern funders." I'm surprised you think this, in this day and age.

I don't trust it, but it has a very fast native desktop app. Also I ended up storing a bunch of stuff on their generous free storage saved messages. When I started using it many years ago I didn't know it was so bad, and apparently it's getting worse everyday, so I'm trying to move out. Signal depends on your phone being connected and then it doesn't even have a desktop app? The last time I tried to use it the experience was horrible. I don't like to depend on having a connected phone at all times. And I've used Matrix for a while, but it was too slow, maybe I should try again, but I didn't have any encryption last I checked. I don't like encryption. I think it would be much better for people to just use servers they trust, either run by themselves or by their friends or by trustworthy non-corporations, and these servers don't leak your messages to others. But I guess a little bit of encryption doesn't hurt. Hopefully someone will make a nice fast lean native standalone NIP-17 chat client and it will solve everything. And the same but with NIP-29 for group chats.

"Transparent open funding from the US government and California tech money donations is a hell of a lot better than sketchy Russian and Middle Eastern funders." So basically Signal is openly a government property like wechat, in that case I don't think I would trust Signal even with general conversation.

And I don’t understand why people have to “trust” any messenger when you can just use it anonymously when you need privacy and use command line encryption when you need security. A long passphrase can be used as a shared key.

I dont like Telegram or Signal that much, however its good to have a diversified software ideology, Signal being western aligned, Telegram being eastern even if the founder had to flee russia. I dont mind simple-x, but no one outside of tech nerds use it.

I was with you until the last part. No, foreigners are infinitely more trustworthy 🤣 nostr:nevent1qqsxwkevny5fc2z49ky3tvmftfwvyp9623mhc2h9qvaxpsthve7pmnqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qygrkcud2uwjfruweamz8ewshug5umfq38g9mkmn2u9mk6ajru2w2lgpsgqqqqqqscafw8w

I don’t have Telegram, but in previously being network effected into using it for international texting… I later learned that each time I got a notification that a mutual contact signed up for Telegram that they were about to get crypto scammed. It was always like “damn, pour one out first Bob/Alice.”